Remember that this a newbie answering you. I'm only one month user of Linux in a more serious way. I did get an Ubuntu 6.04 some year ago but felt it was to oslow and too big for my purpose so I tried out DSL and failed to get it to work with my ethernet card.

So June 29 or so David from Canada told me about Puppy Linux and I didn't remember it then but have found out that I had a chance to know it already 1.5 years ago but I had neer done a burn iso to cd thing and failed both times me tried so I forgot all about it.

But David was patient and teached me how to use BurnCdcc which worked very efficient and I burned cd after cd and tested almost all linux there is.

Any way. Puppy had in its installer something named frugal install.

I had no idea what it was but tested it and it worked after some tweking.

My hdd is named sda1 and not hda1. the devil in the details. And to top it all on my set up one should put all the files in subdirectory while they usually only recommend two files there.

Any way. To answer your question. I am not sure how to describe it.

We could read the wiki together. I'm sure of you get more out of the official texts about than I do cause I barely get around in Linux.

"Boot options are also called "cheat codes" in DSL, Knoppix and Morphix.""'Frugal' installation: DSL's 'cloop' image is installed, as a single file, to a hard disk partition. This is likely more reliable and secure than a traditional hard drive installation, since the cloop image cannot be directly modified; any changes made are only stored in memory and discarded upon rebooting."

I've done it with Puppy linux, NimbleX linux and SliTaz Linux but failed on GoblinX Linux.

Vector is the top distro or second runner up distro for me. Competing with Nimblex.

So I am very eager to use it in frugal install.

Why one want to do such odd thing? Cause it is very practical and it works when it works and one can use it on LapTops that have hidden partitions that get broken warranty for restore of Windows XP or vista if one tamper with partitions.

I tried to do partition on the computer I use now but it failed. The defragger failed to make it ready for resizing of windows. so that is one more reason. My only chance to use linux apart from from usb or CD or DVD.

Ok I try it. I only wish you would have been more specific. Vector folder.

when I place it on my HD how many subdirectories deep should it go?

Now my vector folder is on sda1 which most likely is named hda1 in vector? In that folder named boot I have extracted these files vmlinuz and initrd without the .gz thing. As I remember that is how it is in the CD.

And I also have a VL5.9-STD-LIVE-B1.iso as it was downloaded from site.

On the cd I have ... I look and come back and tell you soon.

One boot folder and one vector folder. So yo usuggest me drag and drop copy it over to the hd folder

Your right and the funny thing is that I actually figured it out even on my own. I renamed the old boot to bootx and moved the real boot out to root and the vector folder out to root and then kept the extracted vmlinz and the initrd within the bootx folder so they would not mess up things.

And Vector just did it. Fast and confident. Found my ethernet card and all was set up. I only have to change to swedish keyboard and maybe make the alsa to get sound going.

I write from within vector in frugal install now.

So I am very happy you helped me with this.

now I only have to check that it remembers bookmarks and such.

Do you know if I have to activate some save file as slax.data by calling it up in CLI?

How big should I make it or does Vector make such one on its own the first reboot?

You made my day. Vector is one of the top three fave distros for me cause it works on a national TV station TV4.se and they have streaming video of news.

CBC.ca it should work on too.

do you know if it is safe to let the broser do updates. I mean will it take home a version that is compatible with linux that vector use?

Well it is night here 00.07 or there about and I should go to bed to get up tomorrow. Monday morning blues.

Have I told you lately that I very much appreciate your help. Much appreciated indeed. All the Best to You.

It didn't save changes so we are still not fully there. No cigar yet. But what a progress. I am now able to use vector without having to load the live cd. But very annoying to not being able to save things.

Not even the set up of swedish keyboard map and mixer settings.

So I need to ask this. Is there something me do wrong when it ask this. It finds an earlier saved x something and ask if I want to save it and rename it and it ask about US keyboard. I have tested to ignore and then it didn't set up Swedish keyboard but if I answer save and rename it let me set up swedish keyboard as I wish and that is my preferred thing.

But what to do next time I start up. It ask the same all over and don't remember the last set up with swedish keyboard. I tried the vesa and that one didn\t ask.

Most likely I have to make a vector.data file from within vector and save it in the proper place so it get loaded during boot. So it should be pointed to by the cheat codes as i do it in Nimblex thanks to Bogdan instructions and help from VG at Puppy forum too.

GoblinX is just like Slax, I didn't change anything in Linuxlive scripts... GoblinX differs of slax after chroot command and because it uses its own kernel... NimbleX I do not know... if it uses the same Linuxlive version than is very like GoblinX. You can use the .dat approach but I do not like it, GoblinX will automatically save all settings inside the changes directory, just add, for example, changes=/slax/goblinx/ to the grub menu.lst line.

Could I use what he suggest for Vector too? I have not tested his suggestion cause Vector has codex and plugins that he hasnt so I want to use vector.

Another thing that fails when I try to mount hda1 or sda1 then it says it is already busy. But when I look at mounting it is unmounted. filemanager fail to open it. As I remember both nimblex and goblinx does mount the ntfs hada1 or sada1 and puppy does it too.

Why is this so hard to do in Vector.

should I try some other x I mean window. I\m in xcfs something now I guess.

I don't know. I never even knew such a thing was possible.But just out of curiosity, why do you want to run the LiveCD from your hard drive?The LiveCD is meant to be "live".... why not just download vector 5.9 standard and install it? Or buy the SOHO version?

Do you know if it works to rename boot as vectorboot or does it work to have it one level deep like

/vector/boot /vector/vector and change the menu.lst accordingly.

or does the program need it to be in root? Can one not tell system that root is one level below as root /vector/boot/ or similar?

wcs a big friendly smile to you. hope it is ok to tease you? A lot of laptops have a warranty for their windows xp and vista install cause they have only OEM install so they have a hidden partition and that set up don't allow that one do a partition on it cause that change the id of the hd. They say one have tampered with it so it is out of question to do it or one have to wait until warranty has gone out. Or always buy used computers. Maybe you are a linux supporter that suggest one should not use windows at all but others in family may need it for work or school and maybe one have not money enough to have one computer per family member.

apart from that some hd fail to get resized. The own the single partition.

Half joke.

And you forgot that I'm a noob. why should I do partition when there is no need for it? Such a bad thing to do. such is for very experienced users and not for us who barely know how to set up even a email client.

took me years to get enough knowledge to do such easy things.

The easy answer is Because I don't want to. And it should not be needed either.